The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has established the Conditions of Participation (CoP), which are the absolute minimum set of requirements that all hospitals must meet to participate in federal payment programs. CoP s require that there be an organized...
According to a study of private health insurance claims data, use of telehealth services is increasing rapidly. In 2005, the number of annual telemedicine visits in the data set was 206. In 2017, that number increased to more than 202,000. As telemedicine use continues to surge, it is becoming...
The bylaws are the constitution of the medical staff, and the governance section is the foundation of this constitution. This manual should be clear, succinct, and user-friendly and should also include answers to the following questions.
Many bylaws documents begin with a preamble or introduction. There is no requirement for this component, and it frequently adds unnecessary bulk to the document. If a preamble is included, the medical staff should customize it to reflect any unique attributes of the hospital, community, and...
In 2018, at the annual conference of the American Academy of PAs (AAPA), the House of Delegates voted in favor of investigating a potential title change for physician assistants (PA). The vote indicated only that alternatives would be explored, not that the PA...
The medical executive committee (MEC) is the only committee required for an organized medical staff, according to Joint Commission standards. Despite their arguments to the contrary, however, few modern healthcare organizations could survive with only one committee. A variety of other committees...
In May, the AMA announced the hiring of its first chief health equity officer, Aletha Maybank, MD, MPH. Maybank previously served as deputy commissioner and founding director of the Center for Health Equity within the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Tucked away at the end of most medical staff bylaws is a section titled along the lines of “Review, Revision, Adoption, and Amendment.” While it may seem odd to start our discussion at the end, this section gets to the heart of your medical staff culture and how your bylaws and related documents...
Since the 20th century, the organized medical staff has been a basic requirement for all hospitals. In 2014, CMS revised its CoPs to address an evolving trend across multiple hospitals in a health system: the unification of medical staffs. However, this revision came after the National...
As telehealth expands and technology improves, there are an increasing number of options for communication between healthcare providers and patients as well as between providers, but such services raise concerns for HIPAA compliance due to the method of transmission and issues of security...
